Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| In the aftermath of May 5th (part 7) Posted: 10 May 2013 04:33 PM PDT
The problem is not so much what to do with Najib. If Najib were to be ousted, just like Pak Lah was soon after the 2008 general election, then Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin would automatically take over as Prime Minister. The problem is: who would then become the new Deputy Prime Minister? By convention, once the Prime Minister retires/resigns/dies and the Deputy Prime Minister takes over, then one of the three Vice Presidents of Umno becomes the new Deputy Prime Minister. And who would this person be? THE CORRIDORS OF POWER Raja Petra Kamarudin
Husam akan lawan jika kerajaan baru Kelantan 'kaut balak' (The Malaysian Insider) - Timbalan Pesuruhjaya II PAS Kelantan Datuk Husam Musa tidak terkilan kerana tidak dilantik sebagai Exco Kerajaan Negeri tetapi menegaskan akan memperbetulkan jika kerajaan negeri pimpinan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakcob lari dari landasan Islam dan melakukan aktiviti 'duniawi' seperti 'mengaut balak'. Husam baru-baru ini tidak dilantik semula sebagai Exco kerajaan negeri selepas bekas menteri besar, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat menyerahkan kepimpinan negeri kepada Ahmad yang sebelum ini merupakan timbalan menteri besar. "Tetapi kalau kerajaan ini bersifat duniawi yang nak mengaut balak, lombong, Nauzubillah… Ampunkan saya kalau saya berdiri di dalam dewan untuk memperbetulkan kerajaan," kata Naib Presiden PAS itu dipetik dari Sinar Harian Online. "Saya masuk dalam perjuangan ini bukan main-main. Saya masuk ini untuk melihatkan apa yang kita usrahkan Islam yang syumul, Islam yang komprehensif, yang menjaga khazanah negeri dan negara supaya miskin dan yatim piatu, mereka itu dibela dan Islam menjadi model. Ini cita-cita saya," tambah beliau lagi. Husam (gambar) yang naik dalam politik bermula dengan menjadi "orang belakang" Nik Aziz ditamatkan kariernya dalam kerajaan negeri Kelantan sebaik sahaja bekas menteri besar bersara dari memimpin negeri. Nik Aziz yang juga Mursyidul Am PAS itu sekali lagi berjaya memimpin parti Islam tersebut untuk menang dalam Pilihan Raya 2013 menyaksikan Pakatan Rakyat (PR) berjaya mendapat 32 daripada 45 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN), sekaligus mempertahankan negeri yang diperintah semenjak 1990. Pada PRU13 PAS menguasai 32 kerusi DUN berbanding Barisan Nasional (BN) yang menang di 12 kerusi manakala PKR satu kerusi. Ahmad, yang juga Timbalan Pesuruhjaya PAS I Kelantan, menang kerusi DUN Pasir Pekan dengan mengalahkan calon BN Nik Noriza Nik Salleh dengan majoriti 5,644 undi. Husam tewas di kerusi Parlimen Putrajaya di tangan Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor akan tetapi berjaya mengekalkan kerusi DUN Salor. Selain Husam, pemimpin-pemimpin kanan PAS yang turut kalah dalam PRU13 adalah Timbalan Presiden Mohamad Sabu, Naib Presiden Salahuddin Ayub dan Ahli Jawatankuasa Pusat Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad. *********************************************** I first met the ex-Menteri Besar of Kelantan, Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, face-to-face 15 years ago in 1998. The meeting, which was arranged by Mustafa Ali, was actually for an interview. Harakah, the party organ of the Islamic party, PAS, then translated this interview into Bahasa Malaysia. One important point I made, and which I discussed with Tok Guru, was that PAS Kelantan is Nik Aziz and Nik Aziz is PAS Kelantan. Hence, without Tok Guru, the PAS Kelantan government would most likely cease to exist. PAS Kelantan is more or less synonymous with Tok Guru. I actually met a few kaki gedebeh (sort of street thugs) at the Kota Bharu taxi station and many of them expressed support for Tok Guru. Yes, I do have many friends amongst the kaki gedebeh who would escort me to Golok when I cross the border to visit the Buddhist temples in Thailand (why else would I go to Golok?). These kaki gedebeh are not good Muslims. They do not pray or fast. They go to Golok for R&R (for wine, women and other merriment). You can hire them to 'fix up' your enemy either with a bullet in the chest or a kapak kecik (small axe) on the forehead. They smuggle rice across the border and involve in gunrunning. And so on. Yet they support Tok Guru, not because of Islam or PAS, but because they have tremendous respect for him. Hence, if even 'bad' people support Tok Guru, how can PAS go wrong? But what would happen if Tok Guru were no longer the Menteri Besar? Would PAS still get their support? I doubt so! Tok Guru agreed and explained that this was why he was grooming lapisan kedua (second layer) to prepare them to take over from him. And he had about two or three candidates in mind who he was grooming as his successor, one of them, of course, Husam Musa. Tok Guru further said that on a few occasions he absented himself from functions he had been invited to so that these lapisan kedua could attend in his place. This, explained Tok Guru, was not only to 'train' them, but also to give them exposure so that that rakyat can familiarise themselves with these second-in-commands. Now, Tok Guru has retired. And all the lapisan kedua whom he groomed these last 23 years have been 'retired off' as well, Husam Musa one of them. And the reason they have been 'retired off' is because His Highness the Sultan of Kelantan wants them out. According to the 'palace talk', His Highness wanted a timber concession and Husam turned His Highness down and told the Sultan to follow the 'normal procedure' by submitting a tender. Hence the reason for the heading of that news item above: Husam akan lawan jika kerajaan baru Kelantan 'kaut balak'. No doubt Tok Guru retired for health reasons. In fact, he has not been in the best of health for some time now. But is this the one and only reason or is he bailing out quickly before the fireworks start: meaning the new state government is going to go on a timber session orgy? Anyway, Husam has warned he would lawan (oppose/fight) if that happens. But the fact he even needed to issue that warning does not bode well. Are we soon going to see another Kelantan palace crisis like in the late-1980s? The only thing is the Kelantan palace crisis in the late-1980s saw the downfall of Umno in Kelantan. This time around it may see the downfall of PAS in Kelantan. Talking about the palace, soon after the Sunday general election, His Highness the Sultan of Selangor wrote to DAP, PKR and PAS individually asking these three Pakatan Rakyat parties whom they want as the new Menteri Besar. All three parties replied to the Sultan's letter naming Khalid Ibrahim. This upset Azmin Ali because Pakatan Rakyat did not hold a meeting to come to this 'consensus'. In fact, PKR, too, did not hold any internal meeting to decide on who should be the Menteri Besar. The party President replied to the Sultan's letter without the party's 'approval'. DAP and PAS won 15 seats each in the Selangor State Assembly while PKR won 14. However, although PKR won one seat less than DAP and PKR, Azmin still considers that PKR won 15 seats and not 14 because PAS engaged PKR in a three-corner fight in Kota Damansara (the PSM candidate contested under the PKR banner). And if you combine the votes that both PAS and PKR got, then the opposition (PKR) would have won that seat instead of Barisan Nasional. Hence, unofficially, PKR won that seat and thus PKR also unofficially won 15 seats, just like DAP and PAS. The fact that PKR won 14 seats and not 15 is because PAS 'sabotaged' PKR. That is how Azmin looks at it -- that DAP, PAS and PKR are 'equal partners' with 15 seats each in the Selangor State Assembly. And if you were to read between the lines regarding what Azmin told the press conference yesterday, it is very clear he is challenging the party President's action in replying to the Sultan's letter naming Khalid as the Menteri Besar when the party had not made such a decision. So now it is in His Highness the Sultan's hand. And, according to the Sultan, it is His Highness's authority to decide who gets to become the Menteri Besar although the palace can first of all ask for the pandangan (view/opinion) from the parties that won the election. Finally, it is the Sultan that decides and no one else. The much-expected meeting between Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and the de facto Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has finally been held. In fact, it was Najib who requested the meeting. Najib is now under siege. His people predicted that Barisan Nasional would win 145 seats in Parliament -- three seats less to get a two-thirds majority in Parliament but five seats better than what Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi did in 2008 (which resulted in his ouster). Days before the general election it was already confirmed that Barisan Nasional would win more than 130 seats but most likely less than in 2008 -- and for sure without a two-thirds majority in Parliament (I distributed this '130-145/worse case-best case' message to many of my close friends last week). Tun Dr Mahathir had earlier publicly warned Najib that if he could not better Pak Lah's 2008 performance then he is in deep shit. After the general election, Dr Mahathir said it is up to Umno to decide what happens to Najib. So now Najib is in a state of panic because Umno will 'decide' whatever Dr Mahathir wants. The problem is not so much what to do with Najib. If Najib were to be ousted, just like Pak Lah was soon after the 2008 general election, then Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin would automatically take over as Prime Minister. The problem is: who would then become the new Deputy Prime Minister? By convention, once the Prime Minister retires/resigns/dies and the Deputy Prime Minister takes over, then one of the three Vice Presidents of Umno becomes the new Deputy Prime Minister. And who would this person be? The three Vice Presidents of Umno are Zahid Hamidi (who won by 1,592 votes), Hishammuddin Tun Hussein (who won by 1,515 votes), and Mohd Shafie Apdal (who won by 1,445 votes). This would mean, by convention, Zahid should be the new Deputy Prime Minister. And if Zahid declines the post, then Hishammuddin would be the new Deputy Prime Minister instead. Only if Hishammuddin also declines the post would the job go to Shafie from Sabah -- the first time in history that the second top job is going to an East Malaysian (which means he would most likely become the Prime Minister if anything were to happen to Muhyiddin). Interesting, is it not? Why would Sabah want to now support Anwar Ibrahim when there is a strong likelihood that a Sabahan is going to become the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia with a possibility that he would become the Prime Minister later on? The problem with this, though, is that Shafie is a Najib crony and a member of Najib's 'inner circle' -- as is Hishammuddin, Najib's cousin -- while Zahid, who was then the Umno Youth Leader, was the man who worked as Anwar's 'hatchet man' in trying to bring down Dr Mahathir in the pre-Reformasi days. So can Dr Mahathir afford to oust Najib and allow Muhyiddin to take over when Muhyiddin's second-in-command would be one of the people who Dr Mahathir does not like? That may yet be Najib's saving grace. It is not about Muhyiddin but about who will replace Muhyiddin.
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